Category Archives: Tips & Tricks

The Conservation Volunteers is a UK based charity, which also covers Ireland. They produce a variety of handbooks which are designed to assist people who are carrying out conservation in the countryside.

Their excellent website gives access to these handbooks in a very user-friendly way. The resources include guides to:

Monaghan County Council asks that when logging a fault on a public light using deadsureapp.com, please add a contact name and phone number of the relevant person who can be contacted in the comment box, so that the repair technician can call to verify he is dealing with the correct light when out on site. It is not always practical to turn on all the lights on a street during the day to visually check which light is out, so these contact details are important for the repair technician. This will help ensure efficient operation of this system.

For most faults reported, the planned repair time in our current contract is within 14 days. An exception to this is when a light is difficult to access and requires special Health & Safety procedures. In these difficult access cases, repairs are carried out when there are sufficient quantities in an area to justify mobilisation of the required H & S equipment. This could be several weeks or even months.

Trying to think of ways of engaging children in your work? Or promoting sustainable development? Or biodiversity?

Well, why not combine all three with this simple project:
– Gather up a few children and make a beeline for the biggest, oldest trees in your area.
– Collect the seeds/ conkers/ acorns/ nuts from the ground under the trees.
– Take them back to base and plant them in seeding trays, pots, whatever you have.
– Stick a lollipop stick in each, with the child who collected and planted it’s name on.
– Store somewhere the frost won’t get them
– Keep them damp – a light watering once a week should do over the winter months
– See what you’ve got come spring!!

A great way to ensure the genetics of your area’s oldest trees are passed on